eysenck's theory

• biological basis

  our personality traits are biological in origin and come about through the type of nervous system we inherit
• extraverts

  have an underactive nervous system which means they constantly seek excitement and are likely to engage in risk taking behaviour
• neurotic

  tend to be nervous, jumpy and overanxious and their behaviour is usually difficult to predict
• psychotic

  higher levels of testosterone and are emotional and more prone to aggression
• the criminal personality

  an individual who scores highly on the levels of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism are likely to engage in offending behaviour
• the role of socialisation

  eysenck believed that people with high extraversion and neuroticism scores had nervous systems that made it difficult to be conditioned

  as a result they are less likely to learn anxiety responses and more likely to act antisocially in social settings
• measuring the criminal personality

  Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ)

  psychological test that locates respondents along the E,N and P dimensions to determine their personality type
• limitation of Eysenck's theory

  cultural factors are not taken into account

  the criminal personality may vary according to culture

  this questions how far the criminal personality can be generalised
• limitation of Eysenck's theory

  the idea that all offending behaviour can be explained by personality traits alone

  Moffitt - argued that personality traits are a poor predictor of how long offending behaviour would go on for